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THE SUCCESS OF JESUS CHRIST
Jesus Christ is the greatest success of
eternity! He came for a specific purpose and He accomplished that purpose.
He was named Jesus for one reason: “thou
shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins,”
(Matthew 1:21). The Lord Jesus was
ethnically a Jew. The Jews were in a sense “His
people.” But He did not come to save the
Jews. He was given another people. They are referred to by Him as His
“sheep.” The statements of the Lord Jesus regarding His sheep teach us about
the successful work of
the Good Shepherd. Consider the following
verses: John 10:11: “I am the good
shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
John 10:14: “I
am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”
John 10:15: “As
the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for
the sheep.” John 10:16:
“And other sheep I have, which are not of this
fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall
be one fold, and one shepherd.” John
10:26: “But ye believe not, because ye are
not of my sheep, as I said unto you.” John
10:27-28: “My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
All the different shades of free-will
religion would have us think it is the sheep who are successful. But these
verses all speak of the success of the Shepherd! It is not the sheep that
seek the Shepherd, but rather the Shepherd seeks the sheep. And so in light
of this Paul wrote: “There is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out
of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth
good, no, not one,” (Romans 3:11-12). If
you initiated your own salvation whether by your own home-grown “faith” or
by the supposed obedience of baptism for salvation or by some other work,
you were not seeking God. You may have sought an escape from God's just
punishment. You may have sought peace of mind. You may have sought a better
life for you and your family. You may have sought perhaps a dozen other
things – but you did not seek God.
Only the new birth – literally the birth
from above – or as theologians say, “regeneration” - this sovereign work of
the Holy Spirit of God makes a spiritually dead sinner alive. Nothing you do
or any other human being does has anything to do with God making His elect
alive. As John wrote, “Which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God,” (John 1:13). Jesus said:
“...Ye must be born again,”
(John 3:7). |
